


Lovesick (the Paris remix)

by Impala_Chick



Category: Band of Brothers
Genre: Canon Universe, Drunk confessions, Fluff, M/M, Male Friendship, POV Outsider
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-21
Updated: 2020-06-21
Packaged: 2021-03-03 19:35:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,730
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24730930
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Impala_Chick/pseuds/Impala_Chick
Summary: Harry doesn’t purposefully designate himself as the Easy Co. relationship expert, but it happens anyway.Nix is a tough nut to crack compared to the others, but he eventually tells Harry what's bothering him.
Relationships: Kitty Grogan/Harry Welsh, Lewis Nixon & Harry Welsh, Lewis Nixon/Richard Winters
Comments: 10
Kudos: 58
Collections: Heavy Artillery Rolling Remix 2020





	Lovesick (the Paris remix)

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [A Dose of Civilization](https://archiveofourown.org/works/24577933) by [slightlytookish](https://archiveofourown.org/users/slightlytookish/pseuds/slightlytookish). 



Harry didn’t purposefully designate himself as the Easy Co. relationship expert, but it happened anyway. 

He did bring up Kitty more than the average guy brought up girls from back home. And he was open and friendly with most people. It seemed that those two things were good enough reasons for most of the boys to feel just fine asking Harry about their innermost thoughts.

Harry wasn’t complaining, though. He’d always been a bit of a gossip, and now the gossip just landed in his lap. He never even had to go looking for it. 

Harry knew that he’d only get to keep on being the go-to guy if he was able to keep things mostly a secret. Harry also knew that he was a chatty drunk, and sometimes he couldn’t help but spill little tidbits of information when he was drinking with Nix and the others. So Harry was careful never to ask for names. If people didn’t want to tell him about their special someone, that was their own business anyway. Better if Harry just didn’t know who they were asking about.

Like one time, Webster came up to him and asked his opinion on which of two poems sounded more romantic. He never said who the poems were for, but Harry didn’t really want to know. 

Or that time Luz had asked him if there was any way Easy could order some more chocolate, because he really wanted to be able to give some away. That might not have been an overtly romantic gesture in and of itself, but it was the way he asked it - he had seemed so shy and so sincere, and he didn’t even crack a joke when he was asking. Which was totally out of character for him.

Harry remembered fondly how Liebgott had very carefully asked him about whether gun oil or Vaseline made better lube. He didn’t ask it quite like that, but Harry caught on pretty quick when Liebgott kept using the phrase “make things more slippery” in reference to his M1. Harry had never seen Liebgott act embarrassed before, so he had been careful not to laugh until Liebgott was out of earshot. 

Nix, though. Nix never ever brought up anything even tangentially related to his own feelings. But that didn’t mean he wasn’t totally transparent, at least to Harry, who knew exactly what to look for. Nix carried it in the tense set of his shoulders, and the grim downward turn of his mouth, and in the bottle of booze that was never far from him. He was always armed with his sharp wit, his words usually cutting even when he didn’t mean them to be. And Nix drank a lot, which Harry suspected was a symptom of a much bigger issue.

He thought that maybe it would help if Nix shared the burden with someone else. So Harry made it his mission to get Nix to open up. 

Whenever they played cards together, Harry would gently nudge him in the right direction. When it was just the two of them, Harry didn’t miss an opportunity to let Nix know he was open to talk.

“Say, Nix. Anything interesting happen the last couple of days?” 

“You mean besides the war? Because there’s a war on, Harry, if you didn’t know. I mean, I don’t exactly have time to check out the restaurant scene here.” 

“Fair enough. I just meant if there’s anything you want to talk about…” 

“Just deal the cards, Welsh.”

Nix would always take a big swallow of his whiskey after that, as if to punctuate his point and to bring the conversation to an end.

But Harry could be patient. He kept his eyes and ears open, and did his best to make Nix feel comfortable enough to talk to him.

The breakthrough came in Holland, before Easy left for Nuenen.

Harry stopped Nix as he was stumbling back to their makeshift bunk. They usually didn’t share, but Nix had asked if he could bunk with him and Harry had obliged.

“Nix, hold up a minute. I’ll walk with you.”

“You’re a good friend, Harry,” Nix said with a bit of a hiccup, and then he slung his arm around Harry’s shoulders.

“Yeah? Well, seems to me like something’s bothering you.” Harry saw his opportunity and he went for it.

“Maybe you should ask Dick about that.” Nix’s voice sounded a little high-pitched when he said Dick’s name.

Harry always knew Nix was closer with Dick than with him, but he still felt a little left out by Nix’s comment. He kept his voice light, though. “Oh, so you like him better than me? I see how it is.”

“I’d say I like him better than you. I kissed him.” 

The way Nix said it, he could have been delivering an intel report. But once the words landed, they hit Harry square in the chest and he stopped walking.

“Are you shitting me?”

Nix pulled his arm from Harry’s shoulders and kept on walking. 

“Oh, Harry. Don’t get all prudish on me now.” 

And then all the pieces started to slot into place for Harry. The way Dick and Nix would steal moments away from everyone else, keeping their voices low so no one could hear. The way Nix would always find Dick’s eyes first whenever he walked into a room. The way Nix couldn’t keep the smile off his face when he was with Dick. 

“Wait, so what did he do?” Harry hurried to catch up.

Nix paused, but didn’t turn around. “That’s it? You’re not going to call me a fairy or something?” 

Harry stepped in front of him and shook his head. 

“Hell no. You’re still my friend, idiot. And trust me, I know exactly what it’s like to feel lovesick.”

Even though it was fairly dark out, the faint light from the bunk lantern was shining on Nix’s face and Harry could see him roll his eyes.

“I’m not sick, okay. I just don’t really know what happened. Dick didn’t say anything after. I think I fucked up.” Nix brushed past Harry to step into the building.

In Harry’s experience, love could make anyone sick. If they wanted someone badly enough, it would invade their mind and constantly make them worried and on edge. The only reason Harry didn’t feel like that all the time was because he had gotten good at talking to Kitty in his head. She felt more like a constant presence, like she was only one bombed out building away from him. He only had to keep on walking and he’d eventually find her.

Nix clearly wasn’t handling his love-sickness well. 

Harry scrambled into the building and sat down at the edge of the cot, right next to Nix. He had his head in his hands, and he was laughing in that strange way drunk people do sometimes when they are trying not to cry.

“I can’t believe I opened my fucking mouth and told you.” 

“Hey, I’m serious. Your secret is safe with me. You wouldn’t believe the amount of secrets I keep.” 

Nix raised his head up. “Know any about Dick?” 

“I’ve never asked him. He always seems so put together,” Harry mused.

“That’s what’s so damn frustrating. He was a perfect gentleman. I mean, he even kissed me back at first. And his hand was so soft. And the way he smelled, Harry. It was like…” Nix trailed off. It seemed that now that Harry got him going, he wasn’t going to get him to shut up.

“Hold up a minute. He kissed you back? That’s usually a good sign.”

“I don’t know, Harry. Shit between us has been awkward.” Nix sounded dejected, and he put his head back in his hands.

Harry thought back to when he’d last seen Dick. It was earlier that day, at a briefing. Dick and Harry had chatted briefly afterwards. He didn’t remember anything out of the ordinary, except Dick did ask where Nix had gone off to. After that briefing, Nix didn’t stick around and instead had high-tailed it out of the building.

“You know, this may not be as bad as you think,” Harry said as an idea hit him. “The constant threat of death isn’t exactly romantic. You both need a few days away from all this.”

Nix looked up at him and squinted his eyes as he considered the idea.

“No way would Dick agree to leave. It would be impossible to get him to leave the men. He’s too stubborn.”

Harry shook his head and got up from the cot. “First chance we get, we’re getting him a weekend pass. We’ll act like it’s for his own good. He won’t have a choice.” 

Harry started to get excited at the prospect of sending Dick and Nix off alone. This was something he could actually accomplish. If he could help his two best friends find love in the middle of war torn hell, maybe there was hope for all of them.

“You’ll help?” Nix still sounded like he didn’t quite believe Harry.

Harry smiled and patted Nix on the shoulder. “Oh, yeah. I’m all in on this idea. We’ll send you both to Paris. The most romantic city in Europe! You can’t fail in Paris.” 

Nix laughed and wrung his hands together.

“Have you met me? I’m a bit of a disaster.”

Harry scoffed. “Time to kiss that attitude goodbye. You have to do the rest of the work here, Nix. That means being a bit more confident and actually talking to him about how you feel.”

Nix considered that for a moment, and then nodded. “Fine. I can do that. But why help me?” 

“Because I’m a romantic at heart,” Harry said with a grin. “And I certainly don’t want Easy’s two best officers moping around and affecting our readiness.”

Nix laughed at that. 

Harry didn't tell Nix, but he believed in his heart of hearts that Nix was going to have an easy time of it. Dick seemed like the type who needed to turn a situation like this over and over in his mind, consider the pros and cons, before he jumped in with both feet. He just needed some time, away from his obligations, to grapple with what had happened.

And by God, Harry would get him that time.


End file.
